If you like something…

Author Notes: Sensational Strawberry Sorbet is child’s play. It takes fewer minutes (not counting freezing time) than it would take you to go out and buy it. This is a perfect recipe for party leftovers, or for berries that are still really delicious but less-than-perfect looking. Sweetening the sorbet with preserves instead of sugar produces a smoother sorbet with a more complex berry flavor. Serve it plain or paired with a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream or a little whipped cream for contrast. - Alice Medrich

Makes almost 3 cups

Sorbet

1pound (4 cups) ripe, flavorful strawberries

1/2cup plus 2 tablespoons strawberry (or raspberry) preserves

Pinch of salt

2teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste

1/3cup water

Equipment

Food processor or blender

Rinse and hull the berries and put them in a food processor or blender with 1/2 cup of the preserves and the salt. Purée until smooth. Add the lemon juice and water and pulse to mix. Taste and add the remaining jam as necessary for sweetness and adjust the lemon juice and salt if necessary. The purée should taste a little bit sweeter than you think it should.

Scrape the mixture into a shallow pan, cover, and freeze until hard, 3 to 4 hours.

Break the frozen mixture into chunks with a fork and process in the food processor or blender until there are no more frozen pieces. Continue to process, stopping to redistribute the mixture from time to time, until it is smooth and creamy and lightened in color. It may be frozen enough to serve right out of the food processor, or you can return it to the freezer until needed. If the sorbet freezes too hard, let it soften in the fridge for about 15 minutes, or carefully soften it in the microwave on the defrost setting, a few seconds at a time.

I second elise! We do this all the time - cut the berries in smallish pieces, freeze, when it's dessert time, put in the Cuisinart with sugar (or sweetener), yogurt (low fat works fine, even no-fat) and hold your ears. Thunderous noise. Zap. Sorbet. You can also use raspberries or blueberries.

Another shorter short cut is to simply use frozen berries. I put the frozen berries, a little full-fat greek yoghurt or coconut cream plus sweetener of choice into a food processor or Vitamix and let her rip. In seconds, you have a soft serve texture sorbet.

Amy, I think because they're using the preserves as the sweetener it would depend on the preserve. If it had a sugar-substitute and tasted sweet I think it would work. If it's merely a sour-ish preserve, then your sorbet might make your mouth pucker.